SPP 1117: Principles of Biomineralization

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The term biomineralization characterizes the formation of inorganic solids by living organisms, a most fascinating phenomenon joining together the living world with the realm of allegedly dead inorganic solids. Biominerals have a variety of biological functions, which rely on a hierarchical structuring of bioorganic-inorganic composites on several length scales from the Angstrom to the cm scale. The synthesis of such complex materials is out of scope for today¿s synthetic solid-state chemistry, and before bio-inspired materialssynthesis procedures can be developed successfully, the natural phenomenon of biomineralization has to be understood in detail. In this sense, the aim of the priority programme is the elucidation of the basic processes of biomineralization through the cooperative work of research groups working in Biochemistry and Biology as well as in Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry and associated fields.The research within the programme is performed on the three substance classes calcium carbonate, silicon dioxide and apatite. Important problems are related to the structure of the molecular biochemical matrix and to its genetically controlled formation, to the biological transport of inorganic precursor species, to the nucleation of inorganic solids on biological matrices, to the biologically controlled growth of inorganic solids, to the biologicallycontrolled formation of hierarchically ordered aggregates as well as to the structure and the functions of the bioorganic-inorganic composite material. Purely biological studies with regard to the function of biominerals are not within the scope of the programme, when they do not show clear relations to the hierarchical structures of the inorganic solids and their formation processes. In a similar sense, synthetic model systems which try to imitate special aspectsof biomineralization processes ex vivo have to adhere strictly to the biological systems and must consider the information which is already available on these processes.